Page:George Eliot and Judaism.djvu/28

 breath of Jewish national life, and their expression is a sacred command, and an inviolable law. In spite of all blustering and quarrelling, however, the fact cannot be denied that, for the greater portion of the Jews, Palestine is something more than a mere geographical notion; and that all the weaning of centuries, and all the enlightenment of modern times, have been unable to banish a longing for that land from their hearts, or to destroy the memory of it in their thoughts. Advanced culture and noble magnanimity are not yet too tired to prove by deeds their readiness to sacrifice themselves for that country and its inhabitants, and to step forward for the preservation of places upon which the adoration of three religions, but above all the heart and soul of Judaism, is fixed. Who will venture to predict what may one day be brought about by the flood-tide swelling in the